Kevwe Akpore, formerly assistant men’s soccer coach at Knox, has been named head men’s soccer coach for the program. Brian O’ Connor has accepted the position of head men’s soccer coach at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Coach Akpore is no stranger to the Prairie Fire soccer program, and has been a leader in the Galesburg soccer community for more than three decades. He has at different times in the last 30 years been named as assistant coach and head coach for the women's program, and head coach for the men's program.
Coach Akpore takes over a program that Coach O’Connor led to an overall record of 45-16-3 and a record of 23-2-0 within the Midwest Conference (MWC) in four years at the helm, after serving three seasons as an assistant coach. The team also won the MWC regular season title in 2019 and 2021 and the MWC tournament championship in 2018 and 2021 to advance to the NCAA tournament.
Coach Akpore recently rejoined the Prairie Fire athletics coaching staff months after a very successful and historic year as head men’s soccer coach at Carl Sandburg College, where he left with a school-record 34 victories in four years of leading the program. In the 2021 season, Sandburg won a school-record 16 games; 16-5 overall, and ended the season ranked No. 12 in the country, appearing in the national rankings each week. The Chargers also ranked as high as 7th nationally, won the first-ever Arrowhead Conference Men's Soccer Championship in the program's history, won the first NJCAA Region title in the program's history, and assured the program's first appearance at the NJCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship. Coach Akpore was named NJCAA Region IV Coach of the Year for the 2021-2022 season.
While at Sandburg, Coach Akpore was an adjunct professor of law enforcement. He is a retired U.S. Army veteran with multiple tours of duty in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and more, and is a retired executive with the State of Illinois corrections system.
Coach Akpore holds a B.A. with two minors, in military science and industrial technology. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in police executive administration, a masters degree in manufacturing administration, and a masters degree in public safety.
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